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MINNEAPOLIS: A Pakistani doctor and former Mayo Clinic research coordinator who sought to join the Daesh terrorist group to fight in Syria and expressed interest in carrying out attacks on US soil was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison.
According to court documents, Muhammad Masood, 31, a licensed medical doctor in Pakistan, was formerly employed as a research coordinator at a medical clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, under an H-1B visa.
Between January 2020 and March 2020, Masood used an encrypted messaging application to facilitate his travel overseas to join a terrorist organization. Masood made multiple statements about his desire to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS), and he pledged his allegiance to the designated terrorist organization and its leader.
Masood also expressed his desire to conduct “lone wolf” terrorist attacks in the United States. On Feb. 21, 2020, Masood purchased a plane ticket from Chicago, Illinois, to Amman, Jordan, and from there planned to travel to Syria. On March 16, 2020, Masood’s travel plans changed because Jordan closed its borders to incoming travel due to the coronavirus pandemic. Masood then agreed to fly from Minneapolis to Los Angeles to meet up with an individual who he believed would assist him with travel via cargo ship to deliver him to ISIS territory.
But FBI agents arrested him at the Minneapolis airport on March 19, 2020, after he checked in for his flight.
US District Judge Paul Magnuson handed down his sentence Friday in St. Paul.